The Gambler
by drusillatheseer
Summary: Drusilla made a bet two years ago that her white knight could slay the slayer. She bet her heart on it and lost. Now, his heart is lost to her and is takes place during the episode "Doomed" where Spike is in Xander's basement about to take a chance on finding his love in Hell. Can she make it back in time before his heart is lost forever?


**Dedicated to my dearest roleplaying friend, William_thebloody! Happy Birthday! I really do feel as if I've known you for a century. Thank you so much for being there for me, sharing your wonderful talents, and simply being you! You're amazing and I'm so incredibly lucky to have met you. Thank you so much William, Willow, Erin and all the others that have welcomed me into the rp family. You mean the moon and stars to me. **

** This is the first fanfiction I have ever written so I hope it's alright! This is set in an AU of the episode "Doomed" that takes place in season 4 of BTVS. I own nothing. I'm a broke college student who owes Lord Joss Whedon a great deal for all the content he's provided. All the content and all the heartache. Warning for suicidal thoughts... but there's no actual violence. That being said, please enjoy my one shot. **

"You swore you'd be here 'til we decide that it's our time

But it's not time, you never quit in all your life

So just take my hand, you know that I will never leave your side

You're the love of my life, you know that I will never leave your side"

- "The Gambler" By Fun.

The die clacked in Drusilla's hand, the lights flashed so many vibrant colors, and there was the buzzing sound of victory all around. Sirens singing the songs of winning in Las Vegas and Drusilla has never felt so lost. She throws the die and it falls to the table- but she never sees the two sixes that rise to the top. Instead she's pummeled backward by a hard, cold vision. Spike standing high on a chair, saying her name as his last word. She cries "No! no, all wrong all wrong!" The dealer looked at her strangely, "What do you mean, lady? You won the jackpot!" Drusilla began to sob, tears burning black lines of thick mascara down her face. "You have no idea what its cost me."

The chair creaked as Spike stepped up, looking down at the stake on the table. Worthless, pathetic… can't hunt, can't hurt, can't kill…can't even be loved like a man when being a monster is no longer an option. That's a lie, he was never a monster. The Judge took one look at him and Dru and told them they reeked of humanity. They did. They were in love. Spike still loved her… Perhaps this way, wherever she is, they could be reunited in hell. Find each other amongst the flames and kiss as if nothing ever went wrong. God he loved her kisses. Spike stepped down from his chair to make sure the stake was firmly in place… Unlike Drusilla's usual routine of self-mutilation, Spike actually wanted to end the pain completely. Once he was completely sure it was firmly planted, he stepped back up… trying to ignore the little creaking sound the chair made as he stepped up. "That's the sort of sound that would drive Dru up a wall…" he thought. Didn't take much to set her off though, mad as she was. Is, really. But if this is the last thing he stands on, the vessel he uses to return to her arms, better make sure she'd like it. He gets down once more to fix the creaky chair. God knows that's not the only thing that's broken here.

Drusilla wasted no time as she drove towards Sunnydale. Most of the time, when her visions are cruel, she doesn't fight fate. She just accepts her fate and weathers through it. Not tonight. Two years ago she gambled with the world. She gambled with her heart. Her white knight could kill that slayer with the sunshine in her hair, and if he couldn't she'd lose his heart to her. She lost. The stakes were higher than she thought… see the slayer was supposed to take her lover's heart and soul and use it to save the world. If he dies tonight, then he will know no love and the world will still crumble to ashes. Her gamble, her loss, her shattered heart- it will all be for nothing if he falls to that stake. High stakes stakes. No time for humour. The car swerves as she turns hard and fast, trying to drive through her heaving tears. She crashes into the parking lot of the cemetery, but she knows he's not in his crypt… where the bloody hell is he? A basement. A basement that smelled like Cheetos and shame. That tasteless Hawaiian print shirt certainly didn't belong to Spike and it looked an awful lot like the slayer's friend. Xanex? Xanadu? Doesn't matter, that's where he is. She drives to the house, crashing into the front lawn as she pulls in. No apologies to the shrubbery, she has to save her William.

Once the chair was finally fixed and steady, a quiet worthy of his black goddess, Spike climbed it once more. He looked down at the stake, trying to imagine something less menacing. Books? Fall into the pages of poetry and never return. No- much too bleak. Her arms. Drusilla's form seems to appear over the stake, beckoning him down. He takes a long moment to draw a breath in to speak, tears choked by pride in those crystal blue eyes. "Good bye, Dru-" he starts "see you in…"

"Stop! No, no, no!" Drusilla screams through a stream of tears as she flings open the door. He looks up at her, almost in disbelief- then shame from the compromising position he's in. Spike has never had a hallucination in his life, so he knows she's real…isn't she? Drusilla walks toward him slowly, cautiously. She's familiar with these sorts of moods, these desires. If she was in the middle of a quiet time session with a bottle of holy water, the last thing she wanted was to be touched. She gets close, but not threateningly so. "God, please no! I…" she tries to sum up the courage to admit the words she's been holding back for seven hundred and twenty two days. "I love you, William. Please…come home." She stretches her arms out, a parallel to the moment she beckoned him after he walked in on her sire doing such terrible things to her. Arms stretched wide calling him home. A tear falls from Spike's eye as he falls from the chair and into the real Drusilla's arms. He held her tightly as they both wept. She pulled away and then met his lips with the most passionate kiss parted lovers have ever known. His lips linger close to hers as their foreheads rest against one another. "I love you, Dru. You're my destiny… My eternal love." She smirks at her poet. "My bloody sap." She kisses him once more with a searing passion, the sort of kiss that causes bright lights and victory music to rise in the sky. Tonight Drusilla gambled with her heart and won.

-The End-


End file.
